Light emitting diodes (LEDs) or LED chips are solid state devices that convert electrical energy into light. LED chips can be utilized in light emitter components or packages for providing different colors and patterns of light useful in various lighting and optoelectronic applications. Light emitter components can include surface mount devices (SMDs) which can be mounted directly onto the surface of an underlying circuit component or heat sink, such as a printed circuit board (PCB) or metal core printed circuit board (MCPCB). SMDs can comprise bottom electrical contacts or leads configured to directly mount to the underlying circuit component. SMDs can be used in various LED light bulb and light fixture applications, and are developing as replacements for incandescent, fluorescent, and metal halide high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting applications.
Conventional SMD light emitter components can utilize one or more LED chips mounted within a component body and surrounded by a reflector cavity. The component body and integrally formed reflector cavity are molded from the same material, and portions of the body are typically molded about electrical contacts or leads. Individually molding component bodies can be both expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, changing the component or package design, such as changing the size, shape, and/or angle of the reflector cavity requires that new molds be designed and implemented.
Thus, despite the availability of various SMD light emitter components in the marketplace, a need remains for components and methods which can be produced quickly and efficiently and based off of a submount. In one aspect, submount based SMD components can allow for customized reflector cavities having differently sized, shaped, or angled reflector cavities.